"Come to the river, come to the river, come to the..."

The voice faded away as Houren regained his consciousness, having finally woken up from his long slumber. Although dreams tended to completely disappear from your mind a few minutes after waking up, the haunting image of the little boy entity continued to linger in the Fairy Tail mage's mind, demanding that he come to the river; at first, it was gentle and soothing, as though it were a simple, menial favor, but the more he spoke, the more worrying his voice got, and eventually, it was almost as though he was pleading with Houren, only resorting to yelling when it seemed like the Fairy Tail mage was ignoring him. As such, as soon as he awoke, Houren set out for the cafe where he had arranged a meeting with the good inspector who went by the name of Nilan. Strangely enough, the cafe where they met was the same one that Houren had been in when he accepted that job from Dex about shadowing him around for the day to learn the job that he did. They settled in their seats, ordered some drinks and Inspector Nilan began to ask the Fairy Tail some mages, consulting the notes that he probably got from Dacol Lubex after every answer. He spoke kind enough, but there was a certain vagueness in his voice that seemed to Houren that he was holding something back, perhaps a question that he really wanted to ask and was simply waiting for a better time to put it forward. He was reading Dacol's notes, pondering over them for a long time, only looking towards Houren once in a while as though he was confirming something in the man's face. After a while of this, he finally spoke, and he made the conscious decision to ask Houren to return to the riverside where he wanted to investigate things just once more.

The Fairy Tail mage had absolutely no reason to refuse, and as such, went along with the Inspector's whim of traveling down to the riverside to meet the entity. While going there, they continued their small talk, but in truth, they might as well have stayed silent as neither was truly invested in the conversation. Houren was thinking about the entity, and also about what kind of entity he would meet when he arrived at the riverside; the one that he had seen the first time around, the one that had been nothing but a shimmering ball in the distance, or would he see the young boy? The one that looked like a kid, but seemed wise beyond his years and who spoke with a strange sadness in his voice. The Inspector Nilan was probably thinking of something similar, Houren assumed, as his questions were short and generic, and his answers were incredibly vague, and also short. When they reached the river, Houren's question was answered as he found himself staring at the little boy from before in the distance, but this time something was just a little bit off. He was a lot more clear than before, and at first, Houren even thought for a second that it was just some random resident and not the entity that he knew. However, this assumption was proven wrong when the boy seemed to notice Houren and clearly beckoned him to come closer to him, something which the Fairy Tail mage obliged. The closer he got, the more he saw of the boy and he quickly noticed that he actually looked a lot younger than before; his eyes were a clear cyan but his clothes were anything but flattering as though he was some sort of malnourished bum.  Houren's first instinct was to inquire as to the boy's health, and also about whether he was still the semi tangible entity he had been during their previous encounter, but before he could do any of that, the boy began to point at something else by the riverbank, and Houren diverted his attention towards it.

"He is the Tainted Sprit," and that was all the riverside entity would say before walking away but not disappearing at all, as it seemed like he now had a completely human form. Houren began to approach the Tainted Spirit, since judging by its name, it was probably someone who was evil and needed to be defeat for everyone to have their happily ever after. Before he could do anything though, including questioning the Tainted Spirit, it started to attack him, forcing Houren back with some sort of strange attack that the Fairy Tail mage wasn't able to figure out at first. The first entity saw the fighting had begun but didn't seem interested at all in interfering on either side. Detective Nilan, on the other hand, suddenly rushed into battle, telling Houren that he was going to support him during the fight, but only in a defensive manner since his class restriction meant that he didn't have any offensive spells. Houren wasn't really all that confident in his body's ability to defend him from a barely tangible ghost entity though, so having the good inspector back him up in this capacity made him happy enough. The spirit, whatever it was, still took the form of a little boy though which gave Houren confidence as he attempted his signature punching attack against it, only for his fist to completely pass through the entity's face. It looked like it was completely immune to physical attacks, and that was definitely information that Houren would have liked to know earlier.

The Tainted Spirit was completely enraged about Houren's lack of respect towards him and began to power up his own attack, and as he took the full brunt of the attack in the face, he could only curse himself for not having trained his speed. There was one silver lining in all of this though, and that was the fact that since the Tainted Spirit was only semi tangible, it could not touch Houren physically either, but it seemed to have an adept control over its magical ability and was incredibly fast to boot. He was a high ranking foe as well, it seemed, as if it wasn't for Inspector Nilan's defensive spell, Houren might have been down for the count. He wiped some blood from his mouth and stared down at the Tainted Entity, ready to tussle. An eager glint appeared in Houren's eyes as he clenched his fists, but refrained from activating the spell that allowed him to armament his strength; after all, physical attacks wouldn't work but who said Dragon Slaying magic wouldn't work on ghosts?

1111/2000

Houren looked over at the Inspector and gave him a little bit of a wave, a sign that suggested he was now ready to go all out. The Fairy Tail mage had been focusing on physical training this whole time, but it looked like that was all going to come back to bite him in the backside because he was now face to face with an opponent that couldn't be harmed physically. Still, he had confidence in his Dragon Slayer magic, enough confidence for him to believe that he could defeat this tainted entity without too much of a sweat. He had been taking a beating this whole time, but in his defense, he hadn't even gotten started yet in terms of spells. He would need to gauge the endurance of this tainted entity first and as such, Houren made a hand pistol and shot a bullet of flame at the tainted entity who seemed surprised that Houren was actually a mage that was capable of utilizing magic. If Houren had to put the tainted entity's expression concretely into words, he would say that the tainted entity was shocked because he had been under the distinct impression that Houren had been going out this whole time with his fists, and because of that, he had no expected a spell at all. Adding onto that, the tainted spirit made no effort to dodge it, not because he did not deem it to be a threat, but because he had not expected such a thing to happen; the bullet hit him point blank in the chest, dealing the appropriate amount of damage.

It looked like his attack had just hit the bullseye and this revealed to Houren the knowledge that this tainted entity could be hurt by magic, of any variety, he assumed. As though it was some sort of video game boss that had just had its weakness revealed, its attack pattern completely changed and it began to zigzag around, looking for an opponent. With its much superior speed, this wasn't much of a problem and somehow, unnoticed by Houren, it had managed to sneak behind the Fairy Tail mage, wrapping its arms around him as though it was attempting a bear hug of some sort. This put Inspector Nilan in a bind as this meant that he could not use his defensive magic, as he had been too late. It didn't matter though, as Houren had another trick up his sleeve, heating up his body to such a high temperature that the tainted entity had no choice but to release its grip. Turning around in one swift motion, Houren ignited his right hand with fire and swiped up at the Tainted Entity, effectively knocking him out for the count. As he lost consciousness, his appearance completely changed, becoming a spirit with green eyes and blonde hair.

The riverside entity from before suddenly floated over, and thinking that it was going to address them and their efforts, Inspector Nilan opened his mouth to speak but was completely ignored by the young boy ghost who went over to his friend, the boy wearing a trench coat that had just been the tainted entity that Inspector Nilan and Houren defeated. Although his friend was clearly knocked out, the riverside entity was absolutely delighted to see his friend again in a non tainted state, and when he made sure his friend was OK, he turned to face the Inspector and Houren. "Thank you for doing this for me. I must reward you, please, come closer..." he gestured for them to do so, and without the hesitation one might expect, the Inspector and Houren inched closer. He touched the good Inspector Nilan on the head, and the man dropped back, his face began to change as though he was experiencing pure bliss and when he seemed to be himself again, he grabbed the riverside entity by both hands despite not being able to get any grip at all, and thanked the young boy with all his heart; Houren would later learn that the riverside entity that given Inspector Nilan the best gift that he could have asked for, the ability to relive all the good memories he has ever had with his deceased wife. For the first time since meeting him, Houren even saw the inspector crack something that could possibly have been a smile.

He then turned to Houren. "And you, Fairy Tail mage? Is there any moment from the past you would like to relive? Any moment at all, there is no need to be shy. It is the least I can do to thank you for all you have done for me," the riverside entity bowed slightly and uncertain, Houren turned to Nilan who advised the mage to take the deal, as he had done so and did not regret it in the slightest. The Fairy Tail mage thought about it for a moment, but ultimately came to the conclusion that there was absolutely nothing in the past that he would have liked to relive. There were good times, sure, but nothing that made him think that he would want to go through it again. If anything, he was looking forward more to future moments, but he did not dare to ask the riverside entity to give him a glimpse of his future. When Houren eventually shook his head, the riverside entity simply shrugged, thanked them again and dissipated again, leaving Nilan and Houren alone at the river.  After taking a few more notes, and talking a little bit more, Nilan dismissed the mage and allowed him to go home to rest.

2053/2000

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